Peter MacLean, who sometimes refers to himself as a Director and other times as a Non-executive Chairman of 365iT plc, has called a General Meeting for Ordinary Shareholders on the 12th December 2011 at 10.00 in the company’s offices’s at 4 Cartel Business Centre, Stroudley Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG24 8FW.

This is to change the name of 365iT plc to Fox IT Holding plc and to re-register as a limited company.

Now, 365iT and Impera plc shareholders must be asking themselves how it is that they are invited to discuss and approve a change of name and company status but they didn’t get to vote on the sale of most of the companies that 365iT plc owned to LMS Capital; didn’t get to vote on who got their loan notes paid off and who didn’t and also didn’t get to vote on the fact that the name of the company would need to be changed to keep LMS Capital happy.

They were also not informed that these companies were being sold to LMS Capital at a time when approximately 37% of the shareholders ( known as the Raynes Party ) were asking that no further investments be made and the company split up. ( There will be a blog on what has happened at LMS Capital shortly ).

We can assume that MacLean thinks that he was acting within company law, the articles of association etc etc when he made all these decisions. Time will tell about that.

One of the good things about this General Meeting is that it gives oridinary shareholders the opportunity to meet one another and to discuss the recent events orchestrated by MacLean.

Business Health Warning !!

My advice to you for the future is:

Don’t invest in any company run by Peter MacLean.

Don’t sell your company to any company that MacLean is involved in.

The other ” Directors ” ( albeit non-executive ) of 365iT plc at the moment are Derek King ( also a Director of North West Equity and South East Growth Fund Managers Limited ) and Pieter Hooft ( also a Director of 365 ITMS Limited and others ). Presumably Mr Gourlay of Sussex Place  ( and others ) has resigned ??

Presumably Hooft was the contact at LMS Capital that was agreeing to buy the 365iT companies that were sold whilst LMS Capital itself was being asked to stop investing and split itself up and sell each company. ( In fact this is now the agreed strategy for LMS Capital - no further investments and a split up asap ).

More as we get it ……

LMS Capital has announced a General Meeting on the 30 November 2011 that will seal the fate of the newly formed 365 ITMS.

It looks like Robert Rayne has been thrown an olive branch and will be asked to stay on as  a Director of the company but who would believe a Board that knew that ( many of ) it’s shareholders wanted to dispose of companies within it’s portfolio but actually spent more funding the acquisition of the companies in 365 ITMS from 365iT plc ( formerly Impera plc ) ???

So you have part of LMS Capital talking to Robert Rayne and his team and another part of LMS Capital agreeing to fund another acquisition at the same time ??

It does not bode well for the future.

Clearly 365 ITMS is a company that is going to be broken up and the only question is when. So this is definately not a company that customers want to partner with on a long term basis.

Items 2, i to iv , are supposed to appease Robert Rayne and his fellow shareholders but with no timescales committed to are basically worthless whilst Item v allows the Board to continue spending money on existing investments.

At the end of the day, with around 37% of the shareholding, Robert Rayne will be sat in Board meetings powerless to do anything significant to speed up the disposal plans. It’s likely to be a very frustrating time for him.

However, as the Board are recommending that shareholders vote AGAINST the resolution to allow Robert Rayne to stay on the Board he may not have to suffer this frustration !!

LMS Capital Announcement.

London, 7 November 2011: LMS Capital plc (“LMS Capital” or the “Company”) announces that, following earlier announcements, a shareholder circular (the “Circular”) with resolutions to be voted on at the Company’s forthcoming General Meeting has today been filed with the UKLA and posted to shareholders.

In summary, the resolutions to be proposed are:

1. That a revised investment policy with the objective of conducting an orderly realisation of the assets of the Company be effected in a manner that seeks to achieve a balance between an efficient return of cash to shareholders and maximising the value of the Company’s investments.

2. That:

(i) the Company distribute surplus cash periodically to shareholders in a tax efficient manner with due regard to shareholders’ tax circumstances;

(ii) the Company manage its affairs such that existing capital commitments are ultimately eliminated;

(iii) the Company pursue a policy of asset realisation with a view to returning capital to members over as short a time period as practicable, having due regard to the maximisation of shareholder value;

(iv) the Company refrain from committing capital to any new investments; and

(v) the Board have discretion to make additional investments in existing assets in order to protect shareholder value.

3. That Robert Rayne remain on the Board as a director of the Company.

Further details of the resolutions are set out in the Circular, together with the background to and reasons for the general meeting of the Company to be held on 30 November 2011. The Circular also sets out the recommendations of the Board that shareholders vote IN FAVOUR of the first and second resolutions and AGAINST the third resolution to be proposed at the General Meeting.

The General Meeting of the Company will be held at One Vine Street, London, W1J 0AH at 11.00a.m. on 30 November 2011.

You may be thinking that you are talking to that famous pop star that you adore or reading his or her pearls of wisdom but the likelihood is that you are talking to or hearing from a trusted stand-in.

As the use and importance of social media communication grows so will the number of people and businesses that have to make a decision as to whether they spend the time personally communicating or whether they outsource this responsibility to someone that they can trust. ( That’s twice I have said the ” trust ” word in so many sentences ! ).

As this blog post says

http://socialmediatoday.com/alexisbonari/283796/pros-and-cons-using-alias-your-online-persona

people have been using pseudonyms for hundreds of years. Personally I have no problem with people ghosting, aliasing or using pseudonyms and it is naive to think that this does not happen.

People and businesses are rapidly arriving at this decision point for many reasons:

- Social media membership and participation is now regarded as a necessary way of communicating for individuals and businesses wishing to promote themselves and interact with their customers, potential customers ( prospects ) and supporters.

- It is becoming more and more important for individuals and businesses to continuously generate content ( new pages, articles and posts ) for their websites, blogs and social media pages.   Not only is this a task that is time consuming it also requires writing and Search Engine Optimisation ( S,E.O. ) skills. The content has to be relevant to be effective.

- Many individuals and businesses do NOT have the skills or the time to communicate effectively using websites, blogs and social media.

When you make the decision to outsource ( i.e. to employ a ghost writer or alias ) it is very hard to find the right person to represent you or your business.

It is also very hard to be the person that is doing the ghosting or aliasing.

It is especially difficult because to do the job effectively you have to be trusted completely or it will not work.

You have to understand enough about that person or business to represent them effectively and to act and respond, pretty well, as they would.

Website pages are typically written by the internal or external website specialists and usually they are approved by the person or business representatives before posting.

Blog posts may also be treated the same way although excessive approval process’s may affect the spontaneity of these blog posts. Also blog posts may get comments which need to be responded to in a reasonable timeframe and in an appropriate manner.

Social Media posts are potentially much more interactive than website updates or blog posts. I say potentially because a lot of social media posts are not commented on or require a response.  However when you do get a comment or response then they MUST be responded to in a timely and appropriate manner.

With responses to blog comments and social media comments and questions the way that you respond is crucial. These are LEADS for the person or business that is being represented. They may be opportunities to build the follower base or they may be comments about the person or business or they could be actual expressions of interest in the person or businesses products or services.

Every comment needs to be nurtured as far as it can be. By this I mean that opportunities can only be taken so far or there is a danger that you turn a potential supporter or customer into a person that is unhappy with the person or company being represented.

The importance and value of the people who alias or ghost for other people or companies should now be clearer.

It is also a hugely difficult task because many people and business owners do not understand what they have to do and what information they need to provide to allow the ghost or alias to be successful. For example people and businesses ideally need to share business strategy and objectives and also keep their representatives up to date with events, case studies, supplier initiatives and things that interest them.

The recent launch of 365 ITMS’s website ( and limited company ) takes me back to the blogs that I did a while ago on the Boiler room scammers. ( I will try and remember to put some links to these articles about share fraud and boiler rooms at the bottom of this article.)

The old company, 365iT plc, never had much idea about Internet marketing ( which always made me wonder how much the company really understood about what was going on in the modern world of high technology ). I think it was a case of the old boys network that had really got - well - one foot in the grave ??

What’s the best we can say about this launch of a new company and website/Internet presence ??

Well - they have a website and they did some press releases. This is actually about the sum total of the Internet repetoire of 365iT’s and 365 ITMS’s Internet marketing team.

Oh - and if you “view source” there’s a few ( hopefully ) relevant keywords in the tags and titles.

If you remember the share fraud scammers blogs then this is about what they did - create a relevant website, makes sure that it’s got the right content and relevant titles and tags and then stick a press release out to ( mostly ) free press release sites that syndicate to others.

If you are a bit of a blagger then you can say to your client - there you go - a fully SEO’d website with full traditional ( if you send it to the
” traditional ” media ) and internet media PR.

What’s the fundamental problem here ??

Well a new website has no ” authority “. It is new to Google ( if it has been submitted that is ) and has relatively low amounts of relevant content. It will not have backlinks. Getting it to attain ” authority ” is going to take time and effort.

The Internet Press Release sites are typically SEO friendly and since PR sites are always getting new content they will probably get Google’s attention. Of course they are filled up with content that is not necessarily relevant to you and over time most of these Press Releases will fade in their authority.

If we  Google ” Web Design Basingstoke ” then we begin to see the problem.

Actually the real problem is this:

Marketing has moved on light years from the old traditional ways and Internet Marketing has really got a bit beyond ” brochure websites ” ! If the only social media site that you understand is Linkedin then ( much though I love Linkedin ) you are really in trouble.

Arguably the failure of 365iT plc has a lot to do with the failure to understand the shift in buyer mentality and the way that customers find you ( particularly using the Internet ).

One of the great lessons to understand is the use of what I call ” Internet platforms ” - more on this in a later article - but Wordpress is one of them.

According to Peter Howells of 365 IT Services Limited it plans to be the ” Trusted IT Services Supplier to Corporates ” ( see more details at the end of this post - About Us ).

If you are going to trust your IT Services to a partner then you want to know that that partner has the experience and knowledge to provide that service and also you would like to think that they are going to be around for a while.

Lets take the last point first shall we ??

LMS Capital plc, the company that funded the management buyout from 365iT, supported by Peter MacLean, the Chief Executive  of 365iT plc and now the Chairman of 365 IT Services Limited aswell ( complicated eh ?? ) is actually on a break up strategy !!

Yes, that’s correct, the company that wants to be corporates ” Trusted IT Services Supplier ” will soon be broken up !

The story here is quite complicated but if you look at the LMS Capital website ( Our News section )

http://www.lmscapital.com/Ournews/tabid/64/Default.aspx

there are two relevant Press Releases:

1. The ” Concert Party Request “.

2. Proposed change of Investment Strategy and Convening of General Meeting.

The gist of these is that shareholders representing around 37% of the shares of LMS Capital don’t believe in LMS Capital’s strategy of buy and build. They want to see the company broken up and sold. These ” rebel ” shareholders are led by the ( until recently ) Chairman of LMS Capital plc, Robert Rayne.

Whilst Peter Howells is an experienced Managing Director, Peter MacLean has been a miserable failure at trying to build up first of all Impera plc and then 365iT plc. The companies in 365 IT Services were, until very recently, in 365iT, missing is Fox I.T. which still remains in 365iT but has the Sword of Damacles hovering over it’s head while Peter MacLean decides how he is going ” wind down ” 365iT.

Strangely then the ” Services and Consultancy ” business is left in 365iT whilst MacLeans, clearly lacking, hands are in both pots.

http://www.365itservices.co.uk/

How long is it going to take for a company, thinking about partnering with 365 IT Services, to due proper due diligence only to find that 365 IT Services is to be broken up ” as soon as possible ” ??

It is a ludicrously badly thought out strategy that is doomed to failure. Competitors to 365 IT Services are going to have a field day. Their salespeople will cast F.U.D. ( Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt ) all over the deal and in many cases 365 IT Services Limited will fail to win business.

This does not even take into account the competitiveness of the market at the moment and the lack of investment by corporates in this type of service offering.

The world is moving towards managed services and cloud computing but 365iT shut down it’s ” managed networking ” arm and also closed it’s ” Cloud Computing ” business ( selling off the remains to someone with more vision and competence ).

About Us

365 IT Services Limited is a new company formed by a management buyout, backed by LMS Capital plc, of a number of business divisions from 365 iT plc.

These business divisions deliver a range of technology solutions extending from unified communications to network and system infrastructure, security, business continuity and managed services.

http://www.365itservices.co.uk/

The new company, 365 IT Services Limited is managed by Peter Howells who was the Managing Director and co-founder of 5i Limited, the unified communications specialist. Peter MacLean, Chairman and Chief Executive of 365 iT plc who also joins the board as Non-Executive Chairman will focus on corporate strategy and acquisitions.

Peter Howells, Managing Director of 365 IT Services said “Our aim is to become the trusted IT services supplier of choice for corporate businesses in the UK. Bringing together the separate divisions under one banner will provide us with one of the strongest portfolio of technologies and services possible and allow us to work closer with existing and new customers and business partners to achieve this goal.”

Howells added “Working with LMS Capital will not only ensure that we have the capital to fund organic growth but also provide access to a greater source of investment capital to acquire other businesses that will further strengthen our overall proposition in key areas of technology and services delivery.”

Commenting on the investment, Pieter Hooft, Managing Director UK Investments at LMS Capital, said “We are delighted to have the opportunity to be part of 365 IT Services Limited. Our due diligence has confirmed that the individual businesses are held in high regard by customers and key suppliers and we are confident that their integration into a single new company, under a management team that has a proven track record of profitable growth, will create an outstanding company that will take advantage of the rapidly changing IT landscape.”

http://www.365itservices.co.uk/

365 In The Main Steam ( ITMS ) is a global awareness service for I.T. Managed Services Updates and Information.

Having established the Managed Network Services Division of Voyager Internet and Networks in the mid to late nineties I will be posting a series here about the very latest news and information on what is happening in the Managed Services industry.

Managed Services is a 365 days a year 24 hours a day business that has evolved from the provision and management of IP Networks to the cloud based services of today.

365 In the Main Stream ( ITMS ) is about products and services that are in the main stream of the IT Managed Services business.

Managed services is the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations inclusive of Production Support and lifecycle build/maintenance activities. The person or organization who owns or has direct oversight of the organization or system being managed is referred to as the offer-er, client, or customer. The person or organization that accepts and provides the managed service is regarded as the service provider.

Typically, the offer-er remains accountable for the functionality and performance of managed service and does not relinquish the overall management responsibility of the organization or system.

Common managed services

Common managed services include but are not limited to:

• Applications
• Databases
• Transportation
• Postage
  • Courier
  • Registered Post
• Water
• Power
• Information Services
  • Backup
  • Storage
  • Security
  • 24/7/365 Monitoring
  • Network Management
  • User Management
  • Systems Management
  • Software - Production Support and maintenance
• Business-to-Business Integration
  • Supply Chain Management
• Communication Services
  • Internet (provided by an Internet service provider)
  • Telephone (typically provided by a telephone company)
  • TelePresence (provided by a TelePresence Managed Service Provider)
  • Videoconferencing (provided by a Video Conference Managed Service Provider or by a Video Managed Service Provider)
• Media
• Supply Chain Management Services

Managed services provider

A managed services provider (MSP), is typically an information technology (IT) services provider, who manages and assumes responsibility for providing a defined set of services to their clients either proactively or as they (not the client) determine that the services are needed. Most MSPs bill an upfront setup or Transition and an ongoing flat or near-fixed monthly fee, which benefits their clients by providing them with predictable IT support costs.

In general

The business model behind managed services has been commonplace among enterprise level companies. The model has also been adapted to fit small to medium sized companies by the value-added reseller(VAR) community as they evolved to provide more consistent budgeting and higher levels of service to small businesses and mid-size enterprises.

See also

• Application service provider
• Customer service
• Enterprise architecture
• Service (economics)
• Service economy
• Services marketing
• Service design
• Service provider
• Service Science, Management and Engineering
• Service system
• Web service
• Technical support

see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managed_services

for more information and links.

Here the “About Me ” page from the new 365 ITMS Limited website:

About Us

365 ITMS Limited is a new company formed by a management buyout, backed by LMS Capital plc, of a number of business divisions from 365 iT plc.

These business divisions deliver a range of technology solutions extending from unified communications to network and system infrastructure, security, business continuity and managed services.

The new company, 365 ITMS Limited is managed by Peter Howells who was the Managing Director and co-founder of 5i Limited, the unified communications specialist. Peter MacLean, Chairman and Chief Executive of 365 iT plc who also joins the board as Non-Executive Chairman will focus on corporate strategy and acquisitions.

Peter Howells, Managing Director of 365 ITMS said “Our aim is to become the trusted IT services supplier of choice for corporate businesses in the UK. Bringing together the separate divisions under one banner will provide us with one of the strongest portfolio of technologies and services possible and allow us to work closer with existing and new customers and business partners to achieve this goal.”

Howells added “Working with LMS Capital will not only ensure that we have the capital to fund organic growth but also provide access to a greater source of investment capital to acquire other businesses that will further strengthen our overall proposition in key areas of technology and services delivery.”

Commenting on the investment, Pieter Hooft, Managing Director UK Investments at LMS Capital, said “We are delighted to have the opportunity to be part of 365 ITMS Limited. Our due diligence has confirmed that the individual businesses are held in high regard by customers and key suppliers and we are confident that their integration into a single new company, under a management team that has a proven track record of profitable growth, will create an outstanding company that will take advantage of the rapidly changing IT landscape.”

For more information and background:

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/wordpress/2011/10/11/365it-365-itms-lms-capital-peter-maclean-robert-rayne-5i-and-shareholders-chat/

http://www.lmscapital.com/Ournews/tabid/64/Default.aspx

If you are a shareholder in 365iT plc ( 365it services.co.uk )  , LMS Capital, South East Growth Fund or Sussex Place Ventures then it’s been an interesting few weeks for you. As you may or may not know LMS Capital just acquired 365iT companies 5i Limited, ImperaData, Dynax and Secure Networks at a time when The Honourable Robert Rayne ( until recently Chairman of LMS Capital )  has led the ” Rayne Concert Party ” ( who own around 35% of LMS Capital ) in a bid to break up LMS Capital.

Following an earlier blog of mine shareholders in 365iT ( 365it services.co.uk ) have been contacting me to try to find out what exactly is going on at 365iT plc. All that shareholders have received is a letter from Peter MacLean that raises more questions than it answers. ( Particularly in the light of what is going on at LMS Capital ! ) Interestingly long standing ( long suffering ?? ) 365iT shareholders have said to me that the letter sent out late last month is typical of the sort of ” say quite a bit  but say nothing ” communications that they are used to.

We are all waiting with bated breath to see what the new company that comprises 5i Limited, ImperaData, Dynax and Secure Networks is oing to be called. Maybe it will just be ” part of LMS Capital ” until , if the ” Raynes Concert Party ” have their way, the LMS Capital companies are sold off again. ( I know - you are having trouble keeping up with this already !! ).

Don’t worry ! - this blog will help keep you informed on events at 365iT plc ( 365it services.co.uk ) and LMS Capital as and when they happen. I will also report on the upcoming meeting of 365iT shareholders - it will be very interesting to hear more about the history of Impera plc. Some of the shareholders have known Peter MacLean since he was at Guardian iT.

From what we can tell 365iT is now a debt free company which owns Fox I.T.

http://www.foxit.net/pages/about/investors.shtml

Here’s the blurb for investors from the ( new ) 365iT website:

Investors

365 iT plc

“365 iT plc was founded in 2005 and now employs over 120 people. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries (365 iTechnology Ltd, 5i Ltd, 7 Global Group Ltd and Fox IT Ltd), the group provides an extensive range of IT services and solutions that address ten strategic areas of IT operations and management: IT Managed Services, Unified Communications, Business Continuity, Data Backup, IT Security, Virtualisation, Networks, Storage Solutions, Infrastructure Solutions and IT Service Management.

365 iT plc designs and delivers information and communications technology (ICT) services that help organisations enhance their IT effectiveness and ROI, enabling them to better meet their business objectives. Headquartered in Basingstoke, the company works closely with its clients from SME businesses through to corporate and public sector organisations.

Commenting on the acquisition of Fox IT, Peter MacLean, 365 iT plc’s chairman and chief executive, said: “This is a very positive development for the 365 iT group and I welcome Paul Speers and his team. I look forward to working closely with them in and in particular to helping them grow their business model substantially in the coming years.

MacLean continued: “This latest acquisition represents yet another significant step forward consolidating the group’s position in the very competitive and rapidly developing IT services market.”

Paul Speers, Fox IT’s managing director, said: “The future is undoubtedly very exciting and I believe that Fox IT’s capabilities in ITSM and ITIL strongly complement those of 365 iT plc. The combined forces of both companies will establish a new benchmark in the IT Services Sector.”

This 5th acquisition in just 4 years demonstrates the strength of 365 iT and the group’s ability to exhibit continued substantial growth at a time when many businesses are doing quite the opposite. In September, 365 iT plc was ranked the 15th fastest growing technology company in the UK, according to the prestigious Tech Track league table.”

As you can see until very recently everything was Go, Go, Go at 365iT plc !!

Meanwhile whilst there is a lot about the ” Rayne Concert Party ” on the LMS Capital website

http://www.lmscapital.com/Ournews/tabid/64/Default.aspx

there is nothing about the acquisition of 5i Limited, ImperaData, Dynax and Secure Networks which is a bit odd when you consider that at the time the ” Rayne Concert Party ” were shouting for a break up LMS Capital were just spending a load of money acquiring new companies !!

At least all the creditors and Loan Note Holders of 365iT plc got paid out by the money from LMS Capital. Who were the Loan Note Holders - well you can probably guess ( !! ) but more on after the shareholders meeting

Please bookmark and share this blog because THIS is going to be an interesting story!

P.S. More on the New Company that LMS Capital just funded here:

http://www.365itservices.co.uk/about-us.php

About Us

365 ITMS Limited is a new company formed by a management buyout, backed by LMS Capital plc, of a number of business divisions from 365 iT plc.

These business divisions deliver a range of technology solutions extending from unified communications to network and system infrastructure, security, business continuity and managed services.

The new company, 365 ITMS Limited is managed by Peter Howells who was the Managing Director and co-founder of 5i Limited, the unified communications specialist. Peter MacLean, Chairman and Chief Executive of 365 iT plc who also joins the board as Non-Executive Chairman will focus on corporate strategy and acquisitions.

Peter Howells, Managing Director of 365 ITMS said “Our aim is to become the trusted IT services supplier of choice for corporate businesses in the UK. Bringing together the separate divisions under one banner will provide us with one of the strongest portfolio of technologies and services possible and allow us to work closer with existing and new customers and business partners to achieve this goal.”

Howells added “Working with LMS Capital will not only ensure that we have the capital to fund organic growth but also provide access to a greater source of investment capital to acquire other businesses that will further strengthen our overall proposition in key areas of technology and services delivery.”

Commenting on the investment, Pieter Hooft, Managing Director UK Investments at LMS Capital, said “We are delighted to have the opportunity to be part of 365 ITMS Limited. Our due diligence has confirmed that the individual businesses are held in high regard by customers and key suppliers and we are confident that their integration into a single new company, under a management team that has a proven track record of profitable growth, will create an outstanding company that will take advantage of the rapidly changing IT landscape.”

Poundbury Systems of Poundbury, Dorchester is offering local companies advice and support on the pros and cons of Cloud Computing alongside its general computer, telephony and network support offerings.

” Cloud Computing ” is a term that gets mentioned quite often these days, usually accompanied by various general benefits of cloud computing like - lower cost, pay-as-you-go, flexibility, scalability, upgradability etc etc

Poundbury Systems believes that Dorchester based companies should look at the pros and cons of Cloud Systems solutions in relation to ” on premises ” solutions for their particular situation.

Poundbury has developed and supported Cloud Solutions via their Cloud Computing subsiduary ” FutureLine ”  http://www.futureline.net.uk/

FutureLine initially focussed on Cloud based telephony, supported over networks owned and managed by Poundbury Systems. In recent months the emphasis has been to develop a broader range of cloud  based solutions alongside the Cloud based telephony.

Whether cloud based or on premises the solutions that should be adopted should meet the customers requirements now and in the future.

Factors like performance, security, reliability, fault tolerance, risk and manageability should be discussed and the potential solutions evaluated against these criteria.

Poundbury Systems is known, within Dorchester and beyond for talking to customers in plain English and not in ” jargon “.

See below for contact details:

Contact Us

In the last couple of days the news has emerged that Ireland won the race to get Twitter to site it’s European Headquarters there. Unsurprisingly this news emerged on Twitter itself - apparently after a concerted effort by Irish Tweeps  to persuade Twitter to come to the land of the Celtic Tiger.

It was interesting timing for me because a U.S. based Hi Tech company had just asked me for my opinion on where to base it’s European Headquarters and I was also reading this article here about some ” tinkering ” that the U.K. government is planning with start-up investment incentives.

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/09/25/for-better-or-worse-the-uk-plans-big-changes-for-startup-investment/

I am sure that IDA Ireland would have been delighted to know that my recommendation was to look closer at Ireland. I don’t have any real connection with Ireland other than the fact that I love Ireland and the Irish people - well doesn’t everyone ???

As a former Royal Navy officer in the 80’s Ireland was sort of ” off limits ” to me - especially Northern Ireland - but when I left the Navy and joined the Hi Tech world ( e.g. Memorex and then Fibernet ) the magic of Ireland started to pull me.

Memorex had strong representation in Ireland and of course the Irish Memorex salespeople were ” memorable ” !! Fibernet also did a lot of business  in Ireland ( customers included Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank ) and M.D. Charles was always being ” led astray ” by the Irish - they delighted in trying to get him to miss his plane by having ” one more Guinness “.

Guinness is of course just one reason why you have to go to Ireland.

For me there followed about 3 ” Stay on a farm ” tours with the children with so many highlights it’s difficult to remember them all - being in a country pub when a  céilidh erupted; the visit to Bunratty Castle; the visit to the Irish National Stud; the visit to the Jamieson’s Distillery. An Irish wedding in Cork. A corporate event with the U.K. Sales Director of 3Com. The occasion that I took the whole of Voyager Networks staff to Dublin to celebrate the sale of Voyager. Staying in the Shelbourne Hotel when ” The Monkees ” walked in !

This is the problem with Ireland - it’s just too much fun !!!

In fairness the Irish really have their act together at a time when the U.S. Hi Tech industry is awash with venture capital investment and many U.S. firms are looking for a base for their European Operations.

According to IDA Ireland Ireland is becoming the Internet Capital of Europe

http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/videos/index.xml

and I am not going to argue with them. Even if all the tinkerings with the Enterprise Investment Scheme in the U.K. happen

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/09/25/for-better-or-worse-the-uk-plans-big-changes-for-startup-investment/

the issue is more about which country has it’s act together in terms of the whole package : Country Brand & Likability Factor, Financial Incentives, Communications infrastructure  etc etc

When I was asked my opinion on where to base I said Ireland off the top of my head. I also asked a friend of mine who has a business helping U.S. companies to establish themselves in Europe - he said the U.K. I also Googled the question and came across a Linkedin answer with a lot of recommendations for Ireland. Just trying to get back to that Linkedin answer I found this:

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/international/internationalization-localization/INT_INZ/7476-1213

Reid Hoffman of Linkedin asks Linkedin where best to place Linkedin’s proposed European H.Q. !!

The answer voted best to this question summarised as follows:

” My final choices as a potential company moving there? Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland. “

Linkedin eventually went to ………………………. Ireland !!

http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/press-releases/linkedin-establishment-of/

and note this:

Kevin Eyres, managing director of LinkedIn Europe commented, “We now have more than 14 million members in Europe and 60 million worldwide. As our membership continues to grow quickly, this is the right time for us to establish an international headquarters. Being based in Dublin gives us access to a highly skilled workforce and enables us to coordinate our business growth across Europe and beyond to deliver the best possible service to our members.”

But also see this ( hot off the press ) in respect of Tax:

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/irish-move-to-save-twitter-53-per-cent-in-tax-0016130-1

and I quote

” That, in effect, represents a saving of €140,000 – or 53 per cent – from situating its European office in Dublin rather than London.

In actual fact, though, Twitter will probably save much more than that, if they’re clever enough to deploy tactics which exploit tax loopholes all over the globe.

It was revealed last year that accounting practices known as a Double Irish and a Dutch Sandwich - owing to similarly favourable tax conditions in the Netherlands - helped Google to reduce its tax bill by €2.2bn.

The 12 per cent Irish corporation tax rate which has contributed to the relocation of so many big companies to these shores has raised the heckles of the likes of France and Germany, who are adamant that Ireland should agree to a more uniform Europe-wide tax rate as a payback for the bailout provided by the (financial terrorists) good folk at the EU, ECB and IMF.”

and the point is that you need to have ALL your ” ducks in a row ” if you are going to win the ” which country am I going to base my European Headquarters in ” game.

If London wants to win in this game it had better put the sort of effort behind it that won the Olympics for 2012.

The Irish brand and the “ Double Irish and a Dutch Sandwich “ is going prove difficult to beat !!!

btw The Celtic Tiger awakening is not just about Internet companies the same is going on in the movie industry and healthcare sectors

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0923/1224304573989.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8049212/The-hi-tech-miracle-rescuing-Ireland-from-a-banking-crisis.html